This invention relates to animal traps and, more particularly, to live animal traps for trapping and relocation of animals.
Individuals living in rural, agricultural, and newly developed areas are frequently confronted with wild animals such as foxes, beavers, badgers, possums, raccoons, and skunks. While these animals provide significant benefits in some circumstances and they are entertaining to observe, they can, on occasion, become a nuisance. At times their population becomes to great or their routine activities interfere with allocated land use. For example, a fox may be killing chickens or a raccoon raiding trash cans in a newly developed residential area, and no animals presences is as quickly detected as a skunk's. Skunks, because of their odor and ability to spray, can present an exceptional problem. When any of these animals interfere with land use, the most desirable option is trapping and relocation.
To that end, live animal traps have been provided which are generally capable of trapping these types of animals without causing them harm. However, these traps and their various designs have failed to fully appreciate the strength, determination, and industriousness of trapped animals, so that if the animal is not promptly relocated and released, the animal might injure itself, escape, or damage the trap to the extent that it is not reusable. These types of problems are frequently encountered because of the closure mechanisms used in traps, and while some traps have generally overcome these problems, they are typically of complex design and are too costly.
Further, trapping and relocating animals takes far more effort than simply destroying them. This is especially true for skunks and the accompanying smell and risk of being sprayed as well as bitten or scratched. Unfortunately, the choice to avoid this extra effort results in the unnecessary destruction of many animals. Again, current trap designs have failed to fully appreciate the need for convenience and safety. This deficiency is particularly problematic when trapping skunks. The traps are configured so that skunks can lift their tails and spray freely. Additionally, the traps typically do not restrict the animals view allowing the animal to see people thereby becoming increasingly agitated as they approach.
Thus, increasing the strength of live animal traps and improving live animal trap closure mechanisms is desirable to inhibit animal escape and injury and reduce the occurrences of damage to live animal traps. It is also desirable to configure live animal traps to limit a trapped animals view and so that skunks are not free to lift their tails to spray.